Cultivation Simulator: Starting From The Empress' Palace

”Merak Flying Sword...”

Chen Mo drew out Tianwen from the Blood Pearl, and in that moment, sword qi surged overwhelmingly.

He brushed his palm across the sword body, letting the primordial true qi within him flood out and envelop the sword.

Buzz buzz!

Tianwen flew out of Chen Mo’s hand, with sword qi filling the space between heaven and earth.

The cold glint deepened.

It split into three parts and vanished into the void, heading straight for the stone golem.

Buzz!

The stone golem, being a puppet, had extremely low intelligence and could only stiffly swing its fists, at the moment of its swing.

Three flying swords shot out from the void, merged into one, and the glint on the sword was extremely sharp, with fierce sword qi exploding outward, magnifying rapidly in the stone golem’s crimson, soulless eyes.

The moment the fist collided with the overwhelming sword light, a loud boom exploded, countless sharp sword qi shot out from the stone golem’s fist, blasting its hand apart.

Buzz!

The sword glint surged, and a sword shadow pierced through like lightning, striking into the chest of the stone.

Bang!

In that instant, the sword shadow had pierced through from the stone golem’s back.

Crack...

On the stone golem’s massive body, cracks appeared at this moment, and then the cracks multiplied, finally reaching a critical point, bursting open with a bang, with countless stone fragments flying like deadly blades, piercing through one tree after another.

Chen Mo’s expression changed, and he moved to stand in front of the Soul Origin Fruit Tree, blocking the fragments flying toward it.

Afterwards, Chen Mo saw a black shadow falling downward where the stone golem exploded.

He hurriedly flew over, enveloped the black shadow with true qi, and took it in hand.

This black shadow was the size of a head, elliptical in shape, covered with mysterious patterns, seemingly containing a powerful energy inside, making the patterns flicker with a faint golden light.

”What is this?” Chen Mo was seeing such a thing for the first time.

”This is the puppet’s energy core, the most valuable component of the entire puppet, it’s what drives the puppet’s actions, much like a human heart,” Qiao Yushi said through Chen Mo’s sea of consciousness, looking at the large mass in Chen Mo’s hand, ”If you gathered the materials and handed them to an artifact refiner, you could quickly craft a puppet as strong as the stone golem.”

”Then this is quite a treasure.” Chen Mo expressed delight, for the stone golem’s power had been close to the mid-stage of Divinity Transformation.

Chen Mo stowed the energy core away and turned to look at the Soul Origin Fruit Tree.

”It’s a pity, those three fruits were all picked by Su Mengyan.” Chen Mo sighed.

But thankfully, the tree remained.

The Soul Origin Fruit Tree bears fruit once every ten years, and with sufficient nourishment, the time can be shortened.

Chen Mo carefully uprooted the Soul Origin Fruit Tree from the ground, minimizing damage to its roots, then wrapped its base with true qi and stored it in the Blood Pearl.

The space inside the Blood Pearl was large enough, fitting the Soul Origin Fruit Tree without issue.

After securing the Soul Origin Fruit Tree, Chen Mo chased in the direction Su Mengyan had taken.

Not necessarily to reclaim the Soul Origin Fruits she had picked, but because she likely knew a bit about the Tomb Mansion’s owner.

Following her might lead to the greatest treasure.

Along the way, Chen Mo discovered Rebirth Grass.

As a supreme treasure medicine, it’s impossible for Su Mengyan, who had passed by here, to have missed it.

Thus reflecting on past lessons,

Chen Mo summoned the Daoist Soldier Thousand Soul Banner, calling out several Nascent Soul Realm spirit phantoms from within to scout ahead.

Sure enough, another stone golem jumped out.

This time, Chen Mo did not wish to engage it.

He controlled the spirit phantoms to divert the stone golem away, and once it was sufficiently distracted, Chen Mo quickly harvested the Rebirth Grass and made his escape.

As for those Nascent Soul Realm spirit phantoms, losing them to the stone golem wouldn’t be much of a blow.

With another quarter hour of flight, he seemed to reach the forest’s edge.

What appeared before Chen Mo was a stone mountain.

In front of the stone mountain were several passages leading into its interior, just like the numerous passages when Chen Mo entered a large hall earlier.

”To choose again?”

Chen Mo frowned, extending his divine sense to probe these passages, determining which was real and which was fake.

However, he quickly realized his divine sense couldn’t penetrate these passages.

Whenever his divine sense attempted to enter, a mysterious force blocked and prevented his exploration.

”Could it be an array again?”

Chen Mo, not skilled in arrays, sought help from Qiao Yushi, asking if she had a solution.

Qiao Yushi pondered before saying, ”Summon the Dragon-Devouring Sparrow. This kind of supernatural beast innately senses danger. Let it evaluate which passages are perilous, and we’ll take the safe one.”

Upon her suggestion, Chen Mo nodded and complied.

Once summoned, the Dragon-Devouring Sparrow followed Chen Mo’s instructions, its large beast eyes scrutinizing the passages.

Just when Chen Mo thought the Dragon-Devouring Sparrow might not discern anything, it pointed with its claws at the second passage on the left.

”Let’s go.”

Chen Mo recalled the Dragon-Devouring Sparrow and charged into the passage it indicated.

Yet, less than half a quarter hour inside, Chen Mo was dumbfounded.

He was greeted by glowing scarlet red, with an intense heat wave rushing toward him.

Chen Mo hurriedly activated his true qi to shield himself.

To his shock, it was indeed a Fire Dao.

”Senior Qiao, could the Dragon-Devouring Sparrow have chosen wrong? It feels genuinely hot,” Chen Mo said with a frown.

”It shouldn’t be wrong. If even a supernatural beast this mighty could mistake it, few could choose correctly,” Qiao Yushi replied.

Considering this, Chen Mo gritted his teeth, activated his true qi to form several shields around him, and ventured forward.

He resolved himself, confident that with the Purple Qi Glazed Armor gifted by Venerable Zixuan, his life would at least be safe.

Step by step, Chen Mo progressed through the sea of flames. Temperatures were scorchingly high, yet the anticipated burning pain never came, allowing Chen Mo to relax slightly and continue moving forward.

As he advanced, the end of the Fire Dao came into view, where bright light shone ahead.

In the midst of the sea of flames ahead, an unexpectedly opened stone door appeared.

Upon seeing the open stone door, Chen Mo’s heart sank slightly; had someone already arrived first?

Was it that disciple from Cyan Cloud Sect or Su Mengyan?

Curious, Chen Mo flashed his body and stepped into the stone door.

With Chen Mo’s entrance, the scarlet hue vanished completely, revealing a peaceful, spacious stone chamber.

The stone chamber had no extravagant decorations and appeared exceptionally simple, empty except for an unknown-material coffin floating in mid-air.